What happens when you mix an established global celebrity, a growing worldwide religion, and a mischievous local trickster? This is the tale of Elvis Presley, the Book of Mormon, and a Latter-day Saint myth.
Category: Latter-day Saint History
Learn more about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including historical findings about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and more.
In the Old Testament, King Solomon settles a debate between two women who both claim to be a child’s mother by proposing to cut the child in half. In his latest book, “If Truth Were a Child” (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 253 pages), BYU professor of humanities George Handley uses the story as a metaphor for the way people treat truth.
The city of Nauvoo, IL is closely associated with the early history of Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But the city has been home to different groups over time, and there’s even a tenuous connection to the biblical Song of Solomon. In Return to the City of Joseph: Modern Mormonism’s Contest for the Soul of Nauvoo, Scott C. Esplin provides a social history of Nauvoo beginning in 1846.
Louie B. Felt isn’t someone recognized by many Latter-day Saints. Most of our attention toward women in early Utah history typically goes toward deserving figures like Eliza Snow, Emmeline B. Wells, or Susa Young Gates. And yet Louie B. Felt was one of the most prominent people of her time. RoseAnn Benson discusses Felt’s legacy, including her call as the first general president of the Primary Association.
Rod Decker was a Utah political reporter for more than 40 years and is the author of Utah Politics: The Elephant in the Room (Signature Books, 2019). The book provides a political context for many of the events described in Saints 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, 1893–1955.
Thomas Alexander is the author Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith (University of Oklahoma University Press, 2019). His book precedes another contribution from the press about the relationship between Brigham Young and Jim Bridger.
George Handley is a professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at BYU and author of If Truth Were a Child (Maxwell Institute, 2019).
Mark Smith is Sexton of the Salt Lake City Cemetery and co-author of Salt Lake City Cemetery (Images of America).
The month before Joseph Smith was assassinated, he gave a personal tour of Nauvoo, Illinois, to two prominent men of the time: Charles Francis Adams and Josiah Quincy Jr.
Jane Manning James is possibly the most well known Black Latter-day Saint pioneers. She resided in the homes Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, held Joseph’s seer stone, and received two patriarchal blessings. In this interview, biographer Quincy Newell explains what we know about Jane Manning James—and why she matters.